If True, This Google Story Is Like a Stuck 45 RPM Disc

April 8, 2022

I don’t know if the information in “DeepMind Accused of Mishandling Sexual Misconduct Allegations” is spot on. The source is supposed to be one of those unimpeachable bastions of high brow journalism. (I won’t hold the Endeca search implementation up as evidence of making interesting decisions.) You will have to pay to read the source article unless you have access at the local news stand to a fungible copy of the orange thing.

The main idea in the write up is like the old hit Rag Mop stuck in a groove. You know, Rag Mop, Rag Mop, R A G G M O P P, Rag Mop? An ear worm with piranha teeth. Not a Candiru, but nasty nevertheless.

I noted this assertion:

A former DeepMind employee has accused the artificial intelligence group’s leadership of mishandling multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, raising concerns over how grievances are dealt with at the Google-acquired company.

Juicy details are not included. The approach parallels the lack of color related to the attempted suicide by a Xoogler. This particular female hooked up with Google’s Icarus, burned a family, and suicidally unlatched her safety belt. Gravity, not the Thomas Pynchon type of rainbow, presented itself.

I spotted some hint of Google’s management tactics; to wit:

Julia [this is a fake name to protect the individual making the assertion of wonky behavior] has argued that there are major flaws in how grievances such as hers are handled at DeepMind. Alleged failures include extended delays in workplace investigations and insufficient safeguarding of sexual assault victims.

Are these characteristics of a Silicon Valley type company channeling the decision making of adolescent high school science club members?

The orange newspaper slipped in some thought provoking comments; for instance:

She was also emailed a six-page confessional document by the researcher, written in the third person, on August 18 2019. The document detailed suicidal tendencies, allusions to raping unconscious women, and sex addiction indicated by reference to a string of affairs with sex workers during work hours, and with colleagues on and off DeepMind premises. Another document sent to her on September 19 2019 included graphic and degrading sexual depictions of her.

I like the use of email by an alleged Google DeepMind individual. I wonder if this particular wizard understands the concept of legal discovery?

The write up includes some details about Google DeepMind’s administrative procedures and the alacrity which some issues are addressed. If I understand the source article, we’re not talking millisecond response time. Weeks seems to be the basic unit of time.

One may want to keep in mind that one of DeepMind’s founders moved on in the time period about which the Julia persona encountered some science club analyses of outlier work behavior.

Same repetitive phrases. Here’s an example my tin ear caught:

DeepMind said it was unable to comment on that latter case but added: “Any incident of sexual assault or harassment is abhorrent and it’s unacceptable that anyone at DeepMind or in the world should experience it.”

R A G G M O P P, Rag Mop. Do doo doo, dah dee ah dah Rag Mop.

Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2022

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